San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JAMES Y. COATES
Having resided in Stockton, since
infancy, County Supervisor James Y. Coates maintains a justifiable pride on San
Joaquin’s development, with which he has been so conspicuous. As a public official he has promoted
institutional, road and bridge improvements; and as a businessman he has also
met with deserving success.
Mr. Coates was born in Silver Cliff,
Colorado, on July 10, 1879, but in 1883 his parents, Stephen B. and Phyllis
(Harris) Coates brought him to Stockton.
His father was a Canadian, while his mother was born in England. He obtained a public school education; and,
anxious to put his energies into a business career, put in effective time with
the P. A. Buell Lumber Company as clerk.
Public service beckoned, however, and he spent four years as deputy
county clerk under Eugene D. Graham. He
also served as undersheriff with Sheriff Walter F. Sibley, and in the same
capacity for Sheriff William H. Riecks.
Since 1906 Mr. Coates has been vitally
identified with county affairs; and added recognition came when, in 1914, he
was elected supervisor of the Second District, and re-elected in 1918 and again
in 1922. His career as supervisor is
marked, among other achievements, by paving and road work of varied extent; new
buildings, stock barns and other progressive installations at the San Joaquin
County Fairgrounds, but notably for the erection of the new $30,000 Detention
Home, considered the finest of its kind in California, also the erection of the
new isolation ward and old people’s home at the San Joaquin County Hospital.
As a member of the firm of
Jones-Coates Company, with offices in the Yosemite Building, Supervisor Coates
has been unusually successful in attracting settlers and capital here, the firm
making a specialty of handling farming property and farm sub-divisions. All these years Mr. Coates has been more or
less engaged in ranching and the development of farming lands.
This energetic Stocktonian
married Miss Grace Sellman, a native of Stockton, daughter of Lafayette
Sellman, the well-known pioneer who operated the first laundry here. Mr. Coates is a member of San Joaquin Lodge
No. 19, F. & A. M., also of Stockton Commandery No 8, Knights Templar, as
well as Ben Ali Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Sacramento. He is also a member of Stockton Lodge No 218,
B. P. O. E. In national politics he is a
decided Republican.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
438. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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